Trying to explain the Woodward Dream Cruise to someone from another continent must be like explaining cricket to a North American. I haven’t a clue how the latter is played and to be perfectly honest, I’m somewhat clueless regarding Woodward. That’s because, although I live next to the border and we Canadians share most things automotive with our American cousins, “cruises ” are not part of our culture. At least they weren’t when the original 50′s – 60′s era that the current event honors was happening. Simply put, it was the habit of car owners to show off their mounts by cruising along Detroit’s Woodward Avenue late at night, sometimes staging illegal drag races. (You can get a feel for what it was like by watching the movie American graffiti.) Today’s Woodward Dream Cruise will see some 40,000 muscle cars, sports cars, hot rods and customs in a huge rolling road show on August 19. Hopefully it will be televised so the rest of the world can watch but in the meantime Autoweek explains the fascinating details.

• Classic Cars and Hot Rods Gather at a Mountain in Georgia. A Mountain in Georgia?
• The One Book Every Classic Car Collector Should Have
• The Flyaway Weblog: Sports onboard a Cruise Ship
• Dreaming on Woodward Avenue
• The Celebrities Weblog: CELEBRITIES DEFINE THE AMERICAN DREAM
• The (yawn!) Woodward Dream Cruise
• TJ's Weblog: Exit Strategies and the American Dream
• New Video Series Takes You to Woodward Dream Cruise
• Cars of Indiana to be Honored in South Carolina
• When Men Were Men and Sports Cars Were (Real) Sports Cars
• Proving the Real Ferraris
• We Choose the 10-Best "Not to be Missed" Events in 2009
• Spotted: A Most Unusual Sculpture